Prince William and Prince Harry’s years-long falling out covers the latest quarterly issue of People Royals. I wondered if People Royals would ever get into any of this, because the quarterly magazine is basically the lightest, most sugary royal propaganda ever in previous issues. This cover story is basically… I don’t know, an interview with Robert Lacey? Lacey wrote Battle of Brothers. The original version of which was somewhat critical of William, and critical of the Cambridge marriage. But Lacey was then co-opted by William and the updated version of Battle of Brothers featured a very keen narrative about how “sources” were almost positive that the Duchess of Sussex is a “narcissist” and “sociopath.” I sh-t you not. So, here are some highlights from this cover story:
William & Harry were very close as kids: “Broadly speaking, they have always been very different characters but very close because of their situation—the fact that [their parents’] marriage was unhappy. They relied upon each other,” Penny Junor, who has written two biographies of the brothers, says in the new issue of PEOPLE Royals.
The brothers were always competitive: While William may have been seen as the natural-born leader, friends and palace sources say the brothers, raised with the finest education money and privilege can afford, were always competitive alpha males. Yes, William was the heir, but insiders say Harry was considered central to the royal family’s future planning. “Harry’s position was set,” a source says of the optics at the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee in 2012.
Why did the brothers fall out? “[The arguments ahead of the wedding] intensifies the emotion,” says royal historian Robert Lacey. “I spent a long time analyzing these accusations. Clearly, human emotion and feelings that had once been so strong went sour, creating bitterness that is going to take a long time to overcome.” Some who know the brothers feel there were several issues that built upon one another, while one well-placed source says that it can’t be easily put down to one thing.
Would Harry have left the UK if not for Meghan? Some of those close to the couple believe that Harry would never have left the U.K. had he not met Meghan. “But he wasn’t happy in his life before,” says a family friend. “She has brought him happiness, so he is determined to pursue his life alongside her. He’s so full of character and full of love as well.”
Harry’s ghostwriter J.R. Moehringer: “This is a highly skilled author and will be a very powerful, well-written book,” adds Lacey.
Salt Island is still shook about Harry’s memoir: One source close to the family believes Harry has the ability to exacerbate tensions with his personal reflections. But a friend counters that the memoir has a very different objective: “The book will be positive about what he’s learned.”
Will the brothers have a reconciliation? “If they were in a room on their own, they would say they miss each other,” a royal insider tells PEOPLE Royals. Given the promise of the next generation, “There’s the old cliché that time heals [all wounds], and the Queen herself is a big believer in that, stemming from her religious faith,” adds Lacey. “I would say the prospects for the future are positive.”
Lacey in particular knows a lot more than he’s saying. Lacey has insider knowledge from the institutional figures, not just the clown show at Kensington Palace. He knows that KP has spent much of the past five years smearing Meghan and Harry. He knows that there’s something fundamentally unsuitable about William. That’s why Lacey has always insisted that it is so important that Harry “come back” and that the monarchy needs him. It’s because William is awful. Anyway… why make this the cover and then not get into what’s really going on?
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, WENN.
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- The Funeral of the Duke of Edinburgh at Windsor Castle . The Duke died at Windsor Castle aged 99 on April 9th 2021 Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, and his brother Harry Windsor,Image: 606149356, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: Ian Vogler / Avalon
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- The Funeral of the Duke of Edinburgh at Windsor Castle . The Duke died at Windsor Castle aged 99 on April 9th 2021 Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, and his brother Harry Windsor,Image: 606149368, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: Ian Vogler / Avalon
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- (left to right) Guy Monson, a member of the statue committee, the Duke of Sussex, the Duke of Cambridge and garden designer Pip Morrison, during the unveiling of a statue they commissioned of the Dukes’ mother Diana, Princess of Wales, in the Sunken Garden at Kensington Palace, London, on what would have been her 60th birthday. Picture date: Thursday July 1, 2021. .,Image: 619024558, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: NO UK USE FOR 48 HOURS- Fee Payable Upon reproduction – For queries contact Avalon sales@Avalon.red London +44 20 7421 6000 Los Angeles +1 310 822 0419 Berlin +49 30 76 212 251 Madrid +34 91 533 42 89, Model Release: no, Credit line: Avalon.red / Avalon
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- The Duke of Cambridge and Duke of Sussex arrive for the unveiling of a statue they commissioned of their mother Diana, Princess of Wales in the Sunken Garden at Kensington Palace, London, on what would have been her 60th birthday. Picture date: Thursday July 1, 2021. .,Image: 619024817, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: NO UK USE FOR 48 HOURS- Fee Payable Upon reproduction – For queries contact Avalon sales@Avalon.red London +44 20 7421 6000 Los Angeles +1 310 822 0419 Berlin +49 30 76 212 251 Madrid +34 91 533 42 89, Model Release: no, Credit line: Avalon.red / Avalon
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- The Duke of Cambridge (right) and the Duke of Sussex during the unveiling of a statue they commissioned of their mother Diana, Princess of Wales, in the Sunken Garden at Kensington Palace, London, on what would have been her 60th birthday.,Image: 619146815, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: NO UK USE FOR 48 HOURS- Fee Payable Upon reproduction – For queries contact Avalon sales@Avalon.red London +44 20 7421 6000 Los Angeles +1 310 822 0419 Berlin +49 30 76 212 251 Madrid +34 91 533 42 89, Model Release: no, Credit line: Dominic Lipinski / Avalon
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- The Duke of Cambridge (right) and the Duke of Sussex during the unveiling of a statue they commissioned of their mother Diana, Princess of Wales, in the Sunken Garden at Kensington Palace, London, on what would have been her 60th birthday. Picture date: Thursday July 1, 2021.,Image: 619146819, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: NO UK USE FOR 48 HOURS- Fee Payable Upon reproduction – For queries contact Avalon sales@Avalon.red London +44 20 7421 6000 Los Angeles +1 310 822 0419 Berlin +49 30 76 212 251 Madrid +34 91 533 42 89, Model Release: no, Credit line: Avalon.red / Avalon
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- The Duke of Cambridge and Prince Harry walking in the procession at Windsor Castle, Berkshire, during the funeral of the Duke of Edinburgh., Credit:Victoria Jones / Avalon Where: United Kingdom When: 17 Apr 2021 Credit: WENN/Avalon *****ONLY AVAILABLE FOR AGREED WENN SUBSCRIPTION DEALS*****
They need to stop obsessing over H who is now a private citizen and doesn’t owe his family or these clowns jack.
In a nutshell, Egg and Bones are flops and this is another spin on the come back Harry we will learn to barely tolerate your black wife and kids if need be as we are very desperate situation.
Seriously, we’ve been getting some version of this same exact story basically EVERY SINGLE DAY FOR YEARS.
Enough already! No one — including Harry and William — even knows what is going to happen, so it’s just the same repetitive speculation over and over again. It is so tiresome, JFC.
Also, how did it ever get past legal to armchair-diagnose (or for “sources” to) Meghan as a “narcissist” and “sociopathic!?” Those are some pretty dangerous claims to put in writing and I’m surprised any publisher would even want to chance it. Especially considering it is obvious that the Windsors are using them as excuses for defamatory name-calling but trying to give it a veneer of “concern.” Meghan has completely warped the minds of so many in the British media.
They used the words unhinged, attention-seeking and monster to describe Diana. And yet they dress their favourite mannequin like her and got her son to call her paranoid. What is it about the RF that drives most of the married ins ‘crazy’? Meghan was never called these words before she married and she worked in an industry notorious for the sheer amount of divas.
WORD.
Do these “sources” diagnosing somebody with mental illness have any qualifications to do so and have they performed some sort of exam? Again with the myth of how close PH and PW were. Do the authors think it looks good to say PH’s “position was set” before his marriage? And, BTW, “time heals all wounds” is not in the Bible. You don’t make the leader of a church look good by quoting that as if it is.
Exactly! I’m a mental health professional and, in the past, I respected the Heads Together initiative. With time ans circumstances I now see this was Harry’s idea and W ans C were just gloming on. I don’t know one person in the mental health world, who thinks W is a good patron for anything mental health related anymore for a variety of reasons, but one that is often cited by peers is the fact W got Lacey to change his book to say some think M is a “narcissist or a sociopath”. For those of us who supported Heads Together and Shout, this was pivotal. You can’t say you’re trying to reduce the stigma of mental health and then turn around and think your buddies can arm chair diagnose someone you don’t like to smear them using two very serious and complex diagnoses and claim that you also support the destigmitization of mental health needs. He’s just trying to use mental illness to call someone names! H on the other hand? Has advanced the mental health cause significantly. The fact he let someone tape and air him doing an emdr session has saved lives! And BTW BRF and BM, no, Meghan does NOT meet the criteria to be diagnosed with narcissistic personality disorder OR sociopathy. Not even close! (Neither do W and C though guys). She DOES show signs of trauma and possible PTSD caused by the BRF and the BM and their constant threats to her and her loved ones. Any expert can see that in her face during the Oprah interview and wanted to wrap her in every form of support. Mental illness is no joke and it is most certainly not some flippant name you can call someone because they make you feel uncomfortable for being a racist.
Thanks. I don’t like it when somebody uses that as a slur against anybody.
Someone who worked on the Heads Together project posted last year on Twitter that Harry had always been serious and actually involved in working on the initiatives whereas the other two were just doing superficial things. And seeing as how nothing further has been done with Heads Together once Harry left, it confirms that W and C only pretend to care about these issues.
Slippers4life, I wish there was a like button. Touche’ in your comment!
Narcissistic Personality Disorder and Sociopathy are two of the more extreme diagnoses on the mental health spectrum. It’s funny to me that Meghan supposedly has these extreme traits, and after six plus years, we have yet to hear a single, SPECIFIC instance of extreme, abnormal or negative behavior.
I mean people like Trump (who was eager to deploy nuclear weapons), Robert Durst (who murdered people and cut them into pieces), even certain CEOs who do questionable, heartless things. All these might be credibly described as sociopathic.
What has Meghan done again? We only have one undisputed, detailed story. She sent emails early in the morning. And even then, no part of that story ever suggested that she expected them to be answered immediately.
The facts we do have are about the derogatory names the staff used to refer to her from the beginning, the fact that her brother-in-law deliberately sent his most senior employee to court with selective info to ensure that Meghan lost a court case in which he was not a concerned party. And multiple other actions.
The extreme nature of the name calling and spiteful actions suggests that if there is a sociopath, or someone with extreme psychological issues, it certainly isn’t Meghan.
Armchair diagnosing celebrities needs to stop. It is so stupid.
In fact William / Charles and this institution also barred Meghan from accessing very needed mental health services. Impossible to take them seriously after that. That could have cost her life.
Slippers4life
Excellent point!
@ Slippers4life, I appreciate you placing the facts that have caused the greatest damage, with a professional perspective
The only reason that the BRF want Harry back in the fold is regarding the success of the Monarchy!! It is for this sole reason they wish to build the bridge and extend an olive branch, nothing more. TQ may be putting her stamp on time heals all wounds but that only happens when those that have caused harm are remorseful and apologize. But it is also more than just an apology. Until the BRF apologize and do the work to stop causing tremendous harm to Harry and Meghan, there will be no further emotional investment for Harry and Meghan. Why should they?
Both sides
Apologies only matter when they’re sincere. And the BRF apologizing to the Sussex or just Harry is entirely self serving and disingenuous. They’ll never go back.
This is called Gaslighting. The character played by Ingrid Bergman was gaslighted by her husband into thinking she should be committed even though she was perfectly OK. Meghan is given this treatment now by the media and by bots. Diana was labeled also with even Charles elderly Mountbatten cousin calling her “damaged” to try to “bolster” Charles’ image.
I’ve seen a lot of trash printed that “body language experts” can tell how confident and loving Kate is and how strong her marriage is, while Harry is being controlled and his marriage is all manipulation. I kid you not, “body language experts.”
The mental health services William and Kate are patrons of should make a statement asking the BRF to denounce this wording as a practice within their institution.
“BTW, “time heals all wounds” is not in the Bible. You don’t make the leader of a church look good by quoting that as if it is.”
Especially since wounds only heal when all the infection is removed.
I’ll be very curious to see how much traction this issue gets in America – it’s sugary, yes, but ultimately I’m just not sure if even the minivan majority can get on board with “Harry needs to beg forgiveness and come crawling back”, especially if they acknowledge in the same breath how unhappy he was there. It’s like telling someone who has left an abusive marriage to “just give it another chance.”
And this talk of reconciling because of the children and “time heals all wounds”…no, it doesn’t. Healing requires effort, as Harry knows too well.
That’s the Queen’s philosophy in a nutshell, though, just ignore the problem, and let it fester out of sight for years, then surely it will go away?
And we saw where that led with Andrew.
William is turning 40 this year. His character is set.
Character can def change after 40. And often does
@Bumble People can change but they have to have the insight to see the need for change and do the work to make the change. So far PW doesn’t seem willing to even apologize for public statements (like about war). He seems to feel that he is untouchable and always in the right because of enabling by his family and the media.
Bumble
Yes, but not without the want of change. William lives in a bubble of yes men. He hasn’t had to change since he was a child. And everyone around him tells him he is not the problem.
Also, the later in life you are the more dramatic an outside influence has to be to spark the want of change. Some people wait until their death bed.
Charles never changed, William won’t either. They are protected as “heirs” and treated as more “special” than the others. I think they do believe they can do no wrong.
@Bumble. What I meant was this is the man William has grown to be rather than still going through his emotional maturing process. At this point, this is his character and bar any incentive to change, William will continue being this way. And I think rather than change, William will hide behind his privilege to keep being the way he is.
And sometimes healing means walking away from people and things.
Exactly. Time heals, IF you put in the work in the meantime, and sometimes (often) that work includes setting boundaries and cutting toxic people out of your life.
I’ve healed since 2017, when a series of terrible things happened, due to some terrible people, and have NO desire to ever go back to the people who hurt me. It’s sad but necessary.
Exactly this. There is absolutely no need to go back towards people who have brought you so much pain and suffering your entire life.
Time doesn’t heal all wounds, it covers them over with scars. You still feel those scars for a long time, sometimes forever depending on the event(s) that created them. Harry will have those scars forever, as will Meghan, but they knew there would never be any healing unless they got away from the people and issues causing them so much pain.
Precisely, It is hard to heal when the people hurting you are stabbing you in the back right over the same old scars. They had to get away to even start the healing process
@ Jay, I agree with your similarity of Harry and Meghan should be forced to return equates to returning to an abusive marriage. As for how this People magazine will be looked upon as the Sussex’s need to beg for forgiveness, would not be the view in America, but certainly the British population.
As for the perspective of the BRF, why should Harry and Meghan forgo their lives of happiness just to fill the inadequacies of the BRF, and the Monarchy, who are perfectly happy in their station and position in life? Why should their happiness be looked upon as less worthy, when the BRF have their positions of happiness and contentment?
Who’s their target audience for this? Supporters on both sides don’t want any reconciliation so don’t care for stories like this and the average American has too many things to worry about
Sorry, that’s just not true. Plenty of Sussex supporters would be fine with reconciliation, but there needs to be some significant changes that are clearly never going to happen. The Court of Keenbridge would need to stop briefing the media against them and stop trying to use them as scapegoats. Stop using Meghan’s family to torture her. These are reasonable requests that will clearly never e met. What the average Sussex supporter does NOT want is for Harry and Meghan to put themselves in harm’s way again for that band of fools.
I never came across Sussex supporters that want Meghan to get back with that dysfunctional family, it’s Harry’s family his choice.
Next it will be Sussex supporters want Meghan to let the markles back in her life.
Sorry, this is not true. I am deep in the Squad and no one wants this.
@Izzy
No genuine Sussex supporter has ever said they would welcome reconciliation between the Sussexes and Harry’s relatives in england.
What every genuine Sussex supporter has called for is a RECKONING!
Some have even gone so far as to create a count-up clock graphic, asking BP: “Where is the Result of [Your] Investigation” and: “Where is the Evidence”
[see (AT)patouart on twitter.]
No talk about reconciliation comes before the act of reckoning.
Until they do right by Meghan, the Sussex family will keep their distance.
I would want this only if there was forceful and aggressive support from the BRF and a complete willingness from the BRF to call out the press on every racist, misogynistic, classist article written about Meghan and her children. Also there would have to be a heartfelt public apology and proven changes in their business practices. Lastly, just about every current staff member would have to be replaced. As none of these things will happen, I don’t see Meghan and Harry ever returning for any kind role.
I’m a Sussex supporter and at this point I don’t really care if there is a reconciliation or not. It’s not my life and I think H&M have shown they are fully capable of making the best decisions for their own lives without my input.
Based on what H&M have said, I don’t think there will ever be a true reconciliation without some…..realizations…changes….discussions…whatever you want to call them…on the part of the BRF. But something that Sussex supporters need to accept is that there may be those changes/whatever behind the scenes and we most likely will never hear about them. Basically I’m saying that we MAY* see a reconciliation but never know what else happened behind the scenes, so some supporters will attack H&M the way they did when Harry went back for the funeral and the statue unveiling.
BUT what I think is more likely is that we’ll see surface appearances like we saw at the funeral and statue unveiling (and for the latter, where Harry appeared happy and relaxed even around his brother) and that will be the extent of their involvement with Harry’s family. (and that’s only if the security situation gets fixed.) Sometimes its easy to put on a show of being happy and relaxed if you have taken away the power someone has over you and have moved past the question of reconciliation.
Also everyone attacking Izzy missed the line where she said “there need to be significant changes that are never going to happen.”
*I’m saying MAY because nothing is impossible.
@Becks1 – ITA. I don’t know what reconciliation even means for Will and Harry. We’ve had leaks from KP on one side and, except for the Oprah interview, radio silence on the other side. If reconciliation means that the brothers talk to each other occasionally, as siblings might who are living on opposite sides of the planet, then that seems doable. But if it means Harry will go back to being at Will’s side as a working royal, then that looks impossible. Given the very little information we have, I think the best possibility would be for KP to stop briefing against H&M and using them as a distraction whenever something smelly happens in the RF. A kind word said in public wouldn’t hurt, either. Then they can talk it out privately, if they want.
There can be no reconciliation without the truth first being told. The Royal Family have to admit they failed Harry and Meghan in not doing more to protect them. Truth, acknowledgement of wrongdoing, amends then reconciliation.
This is the path forward.
@RoyalBlue, ita. IMO any “reconciliation” will be superficial at best (basically, the sort of nonsense we’ve already seen, i.e., “Of course Kate will send Archie a Christmas gift!”). The BRF will NEVER publicly apologize to Meghan or admit any wrongdoing whatsoever, and without that, nothing can change.
I think Harry will be civil when he absolutely needs to be in the company of those people, like at Philip’s funeral, and next, at the Queen’s — but I’d be surprised if it went any further than that with anyone besides Eugenie.
Also, what William wants isn’t a true reconciliation, imo- he wants Harry to come back groveling and apologizing. I really believe that William is that delusional and arrogant, and that in his mind, he’s the sole victim in this situation, abandoned by his disloyal brother, who has been brainwashed by that narcissistic harpy he married.
So they’re pretty much at a permanent stalemate, which imo is better for the Sussexes anyway. The more distance they keep from the BRF, the better off they’ll be.
I think there’s some misunderstanding about what I said. Reconciliation would be fine, but there would need to be MASSIVE changes first. No one is under the delusion that these changes would ever occur, so reconciliation will never be a reality. And that’s just Harry’s family. Meghan’s toxic family can take a flying leap, there is no going back with that flaming trash pile.
I agree with you Izzy,
I agree with Izzy, I don’t get why a lot of supposed supporters get upset about Harry reconciling with his family. If he and Meghan work through that and go back to supporting the Queen, Charles, William, etc. everyone needs to accept that. He’s never going to write a tell all book slamming the Crown. He’s never going to go and say I want nothing to do with my family. He was back in England for the Diana statue and for Phillip’s funeral and we heard about how he was visiting with the Queen and wasn’t there a photo of her driving him or something?
As a Sussex supporter, I take a long view on this and assume, if all are gifted with length of years, the relationships might change for the better over time. I trust Harry and Meghan, their integrity and their ability to determine what is best for themselves. So if they see an opportunity to retain their integrity while reconnecting with Harry’s family safely, then I would support their plans. If it were me, my demands of the BRF for any sort of reconciliation would be huge, and only the most courageous and contrite family members could possibly meet them. But I realize what I would demand is irrelevant. It is all about H&M, their health and happiness. Where they go with this, I go.
I never bought that these two were ever that close. According to Harry when he went to Eton, William ignored him completely. I agree that the monarchy desperately needs Harry for William’s reign because of how awful William is. We never hear that Andrew, Anne or Edward is needed for Charles’s reign. I am glad Harry got out. Let them fall flat on their face. It’s what they deserve . Harry is living a great life in California.
I don’t think they were that close either, especially once they were adults in their 20s. I’m sure for Harry there was something emotionally jarring about serving in Afghanistan and then coming home and doing some ribbon cutting events (not to diminish the latter, just that it would be a big adjustment, you know?) and I don’t think William could ever probably understand that. I think his time in the military gave Harry more of a big-picture sense of the world and made him realize how silly some of the pomp and pageantry can be. And while I know William served in the military as well, it was in a very different way so I don’t think he ever got that same big-picture sense.
Factor in that they are different people with very different roles in life, and yeah, I don’t think they were that close as they got older. And I feel like any closeness that WAS there was probably more a factor of life circumstances than anything else – which is true for a lot of siblings, but their life circumstances were a bit more extreme than others. I think that’s part of why Harry is so hurt and angry over William’s behavior – you would think that William would understand how their mother’s death impacted Harry (even if it impacted William differently), and instead he’s just incandescent with rage that his punching bag peaced out.
@ Becks1, I would further the narrative with Williams reaction to Harry wanting to marry Meghan. Thus began the campaign of trying to destroy Megan and the implosion of their relationship. Harry was always welcoming and gracious to Kate, but Harry was not given the same respect. W&K are the ones that are solely responsible for what has happened, not Harry and Meghan.
I don’t buy that they were close either. The narrative of “oh it’s so sad these BFF brothers will never speak again!” is just another overwrought rota lie.
And yes, it absolutely is what they deserve.
They stopped being close over 20 years ago when they hit their teens and got their own friend groups. Which is normal. This fairytale that they were attached at the hip to the point of co-dependency was never true.
And as they got older they were basically like work friends who rarely saw each other after hours except for holiday parties.
Not to say there wasn’t love there. They’re brothers after all. But William took Harry for granted and expected him to continue his role as right hand man and personal scapegoat. I doubt William ever gave any thought to how that affected Harry because he was raised to believe that everyone that wasn’t the Queen or Charles was there to serve him, no questions asked.
They were already in different friend groups by the time William got married in 2011 and from there they definitely weren’t as close. When the engagement was announced Harry said he was looking forward to get to know her, which would suggest he was close to his brother when referring to a woman who had been dating his brother on and off for almost ten years prior to that.
“When the engagement was announced Harry said he was looking forward to get to know her”— LOL. Yes, but he also said this “‘I have known Kate for years and it’s great that she is now becoming part of the family. I am enormously pleased. I always wished for a sister and now I have one.” 🤐 Source : https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1339555/Kate-Middleton-joins-Queen-Royal-family-pre-Christmas-lunch.html
Yes, he said that latter statement…..two months after their engagement. Anyway, he was a class act in welcoming her. Too bad she couldn’t do the same for his wife.
You can know somebody for years but still not know much about the person if you don’t spend much time together.
OH, what Harry said off the cuff was the statement about not knowing her after the decade of dating. What he was instructed to say later, after taking it on the chin from internal palace pressure, is likely what came out two months later. This has happened repeatedly since 2010. It is only now, that he is free, that he has felt strong enough to make it clear what 1) he says 2) what others pressured him to say and 3) what others lied about him saying. Case in point was a ‘joint statement’ from William’s office which Harry’s lawyers swiftly denied.
Surely the whole “his position was set” thing was a huge part of the problem, no? Harry saw that the family wanted to use his charm and genuine warmth and kindness to promote themselves and maintain the status quo, while simultaneously disrespecting him and expecting him to hide his light in favor of his dim bulb brother, treating him like an afterthought at best and a scapegoat at worst. You don’t get to treat the man like he’s the Fredo of the family and then ask him to save your asses from irrelevance.
Harry hinted to this in the Apple TV documentary. He said that the family always asked him to do a lot of things and that he got burnt out.
Yup, and we saw this mentioned yesterday in the article we were discussing about the Jamaica tour – how the Firm was worried about some of the Caribbean islands leaving the Commonwealth and so they dispatched “the best tool in their arsenal – Prince Harry.” (I think that’s how it was worded.) Harry talked in the Apple documentary and with Dax Shepherd about how he was the one sent all over the world and he was asked to do a lot and he always said yes but it was too much for him, especially as he was struggling with his mental health.
I wonder if part of the being “too much” was that he felt bad for trying to sway people away from what they wanted to do to embiggen the monarchy.
Has Meghan ever been on the cover of one of these special edition royal issues? I feel like she hasn’t but maybe I’m not remembering. Either way, not as much as William and Kate. For an American publication, that’s a choice. When do we start getting issues from the new editor and not the British guy? Or is this from the new editor?
I think the quarterly royals issue has its own editor if I’m not mistaken. I think it’s always been separate from the regular People magazine, not that you could tell. I’m curious how long this special edition issue will last, with new the leadership though. It’s not like the quarterly issue has made a splash anywhere and it’s awfully repetitive. I haven’t seen an official start start date for Liz, but I did see that Wakeford refused to comment when it was announced that he will be replaced. He’s definitely salty about it.
Yeah, he’s prob salty about losing his job but that’s what happens when you squander covers by trying to prop up the Cambridges. It just gets me bc even though Meghan isn’t a working royal anymore she’s a royal by marriage and an American woman and they still never did a cover of her for the oh so special royal edition of an American mag. What idiots.
I might be wrong, but the edited for the quarterly is the same as the monthly. He’s former RR/mail and does fluff for the BRF.
And it’s only been happening while he’s there. Less than a year?
All I got from this is, despite what the press says, Harry and William haven’t been close for a very long time. And at least the piece admits that Harry was unhappy with his life before he met Meghan.
Harry left because William tried first to prevent and then end his marriage. Even to the point of Meghan being suicidal. William has severe behavioral issues that will need psychological help before Harry trusts him again. This is why Harry didn’t even bother saying more than his relationship with William is space.
The amount of white male privilege that makes people tiptoe around what William did is disgusting. William is an abuser. There is a reason why Kate still looks nervous around him and tries so hard to please him.
I suspect there is verbal and emotional abuse in Will and Kate’s relationship. After 20 years together there’s no reason for this woman to be so tense around him unless there’s abuse. People know, her family, his family, the people who work for them, the reporters who are trying to gaslight people into believing that the looks of hate and distain that he gives her are affectionate exchanges.
Harry was right in getting his family away. Harry too has been on the receiving end of William’s abuse and wasn’t about to let his wife and child be subjected to it.
Camilla said” that boy has a temper! “. She was right. Kate sometimes looks like a kicked puppy and afraid of what comes next
Though William is a rage monster and is a horrible husband, I don’t see signs as an abusive husband. Emotionally checked out, yes. Anger filled fits and screaming at Kate, yes. Calling Kate names as incompetent and embarrassing, yes. But Kate is the supreme mean girl and will certainly hold her own up against William. But I don’t know how their interactions are, none of us do.
BothSidesNow, ITA, I’ve thought for sometime now that Keenless is not this quivering, cowering woman-child. She bagged her man with singlemindedness and determination. I have no doubt that she holds her own just fine. Also, haven’t we heard stories about how awful she treats staff (and dressmakers?). She’s not a nice person and she pretty much does what she wants. That seems to be changing now, because I believe Chuck has given Clueless and Keenless their marching orders. They’ll be singing for their suppers. That thought always makes me smile.
Reconcile? I can’t see it happening, because I just don’t see anyone in the brf changing.
@BothSidesNow – Kate can hold her own with him, there has been stories around that for years. I once read a story that said she gave as good as she got and that William admired that about her. Make no mistake, she is just as bad as he is.
The Keens are 2 peas in a pod – I feel sorry for the kids being in that environment.
I have no sympathy for Kate whatsoever. This is what she wanted, she wanted to Queen from the get go. The way she treated Meghan was just horrible. ANd it is on her not william who did not “force” her to behave that way, she decided of her own free will.. Kate also never had close Women friends and had seen them as “rivals” instead of possible confidantes and friends. I think she liked being the center of attention and part of the Fab 3. Harry fell in love with Meghan and vice versa, and this seemed to irritate Kate. She would not try to welcome Meghan and be nice to her.
@BothSidesNow, what you’re describing is emotional abuse. I think Kate is also emotionally abusive but between the two of them, William has more power.
It is over two years since the Sussexes left the BRF, and they’re still in the BM everyday, Why? could it be, they’re the only members of that toxic family that sells and money can be made off of.
Oscar’s Weiner Mobile did it, once Harry drove it, all bets are off, of him going back to England to play a supporting role to his work shy brother and wife.
If they were such close brothers, why did Cain have to announce publicly, he expected to be Harry’s best man, maybe he knew he was not his first choice, after all the shit he did to stop the wedding.
Harry told the reporter that did the engagement interview, that the media think they know, but they don’t.
Jesus be a fence!
Harry left to save his wife and child. He asked the media and people to chill but he got told to leave if he didn’t like it. Now he has left, its an issue? Careful what you wish for, it might just come true
What’s the matter, royalists? You got what you wanted. Billygoat and his Wraith has the spotlight all to himself.
Win, win scenario for everyone..
Honestly, time and proximity are generally required for healing. It’s hard to rebuild a relationship if you never see someone. There would never be an opportunity to prove trustworthiness. Harry can certainly forgive his brother, but when would he have an opportunity to trust him again? Does William even want to prove his trusworthiness? Zoom while good, has proven unsecure. I cannot imagine many vulnerable things would be shared. It sadly seems a hopeless hope. People who’ve broken trust generally need a loong time to prove themselves. William is lucky in one aspect though. It sure does seem that Harry is sensitive and understanding. That would bode well if William desired to make the effort.
I call BS on the comment that W and H were always close as children. We’ve seen so many videos of Bulliam either throwing a tantrum or outright ignoring Harry. We KNOW that Diana had to give Harry attention because W was getting preferential treatment from the Queen Mother and everyone else. Harry absorbed the example of his mother, but also was a natural with humor, empathy and engagement (remember the bunny that Bulliam wanted nothing to do with and Harry cuddled?). His whole life, especially after Diana’s death, was to serve as W’s whipping boy. This does not make siblings “close.” Willnot is the reason they made Harry resign from his beloved military, he’s the reason Harry burned out running hither and yon doing the work the FF should have been doing (and was lambasted for diverting a return flight to Toronto for some personal time). When he dared to claim some happiness for himself (and Meghan), the Firm saw where that was heading and did everything possible to end it and them. If that’s unforgivable to US, imagine how Harry must feel.
The problems with William (and his father) is that they are so entitled that they’ll never admit that they’ve done wrong. I doubt that Harry will ever reconcile with his brother and his father – because both of these men don’t think they did something wrong, they’ll always cast themselves as a victim and they seem not to want to be in close proximity with harry beyond the most necessary when Harry is in the UK (i.e. Philiip’s funeral and the Diana statue unveiling).
I was raised with an older sibling who was the “golden child” in our family. This sibling was (and still is) insecure, self-centered, and mean, along with a host of other negative traits.
The older I became, the more I realized how awful the golden child sibling was, and the more I realized that, the more I questioned WHY they were considered so special and why the rest of us were always expected to be secondary to someone so undeserving. These days, the rest of my siblings and I refuse to prop up the golden sibling or give in to their whims, much to our mother’s dismay. We see them for what they are, and we power now that we’re adults to break out of old roles.
But Harry was in a system where the heir was the golden child, and as the spare, he was the scapegoat. And there was no breaking out of those roles even as adults because of that system. I fully believe Harry was unhappy with the firm well before he met Meghan. He was probably unhappy with it his whole life, but especially once entering the military, and much more so when he married Meghan and had Archie.
I also believe that Harry’s issues with Elegant Bill go back into their childhood and to their roles as golden and scapegoat. Bill comes across as cold, arrogant, charmless, dim, and extremely out of touch when he’s in public and on his ‘best’ behavior, and I can only imagine what he’s like in private. It’s normal to love your siblings, and it’s also normal to not get along with them, to not be close to them, to have different personalities and interests, and even to not LIKE them.
I don’t think Harry was close to his brother or even liked him much. It must have been difficult to see someone as undeserving as Elegant Bill treated as golden just because of his birth order. It was more difficult, I’m sure, to be constantly told to dim his own light in order to prop up the dullard born first.
Harry put up with it (despite being unhappy and at the expense of his mental health) until Meghan. And after the way Bill treated her, on top of the lifelong toxicity Harry was exposed to, I do not think time will do s*** to heal things.
I actually think that the Windsors are completely unable to produce persons who are relatively healthy and well-adjusted because the way the institution of the monarchy is managed in Britain and thus they have a never-ending cycle of generational trauma.
I’m concerned about George, he seems to be following the pattern of the heir being treated more special, only more so. He gets taken to the games and the others stay home. He gets the present from Attenborough, his siblings watch it happen. Even William did not get as much of this extra special treatment from his parents. The Queen Mother made more of a fuss over him and the Queen had those special private “teas” with William. If George is anything like his father, it could be another generation of the heir trying to dominate the spares.
William is a bully with anger problems. Look what he did last week, making Richard Palmer retract his reporting. Not that Richard Palmer is a victim, but William and Kate are very obvious in how they try to control the press. It’s going to get harder and harder for the Burger King because now that Harry’s gone, he is really exposed. I have a feeling Charles is done propping him up. He and Cams are probably laughing that he is practically 40 years old, let him fall on his rear end and deal with it. This bullying the journalists into retracting is going to backfire big on the Lamebridges one day, and Burger King is going to either go down in flames, or peace out from the Firm just like Harry.
I am not sure if Harry would have left the Firm if he hadn’t met Meghan, but I think he’s made it very clear that he wanted to – he wasn’t happy and I can’t imagine how draining that is, to look at the next 50 years of your life and know you’re going to be doing things you don’t want to do that make you miserable. I think meeting/marrying Meghan gave him a reason to leave – like he had accepted that he was stuck in this life but once he realized how miserable Meghan was and that his children were going to be subjected to the same treatment he was – he decided to leave. That was his line in the sand, so to speak. And I think Meghan also probably helped him to realize that he shouldn’t just accept being stuck and miserable for the rest of his life.
As for William and Harry – I think the space probably helps from Harry’s perspective, and taking any power away from William (power that W had over H.) I do think their relationship is probably shattered but I think at this point William is angrier over it than Harry is.
I do think at some point we’re going to get the full story of what really happened between them and its going to really damage William. Maybe that’s what the press has over William at this point – the real story of what happened there.
ALL of this 👆🏼👆🏼
When Harry said on the Oprah special that C & W are “trapped,” he said it with such authority you know he spoke from personal knowledge and experience. Having served *and sacrificed* his whole life at the bidding of people who couldn’t care less about how he was impacted, had to be incredibly demoralizing, not to mention depressing with no end in sight until Meghan came into his life. H & M certainly tried to toe the BRF line, bless them. I’ll forever admire them both for breaking free of that massive machine and succeeding so impressively.
That’s why I don’t buy the Chelsea as the “love of Harry’s life” story who refused to marry him. If he was willing to leave for Meghan, he would have left for Chelsea if he felt that way about her.
That’s the narrative fixated on by the derangers. Chelsea is history. So are their exes. These derangers just want any narrative to cast Meghan as the “witch” who “made” Harry leave the firm. When in reality, it was a joint decision, many many months into the making. Everyone has a right to lead their own lives. Even the heirs if they so wish. All they need is the strength and courage to do so, along with their own capabilities to help them survive outside of it. Haters like the derangers can suck it. May they forever wallow in their misery.
@Gee and @Equality, the spelling is ‘Chelsy’ Davy. Thanks @Gee for clarifying that it’s the derangers who are fixated on that narrative. It figures.
I’ve never seen that ‘love of his life’ narrative mentioned in connection with Chelsy. She was Harry’s first serious girlfriend. But it was an immature, volatile relationship. They did care about each other, but it was never meant to last long term, for a number of reasons.
Chelsy did not want the overdone scrutiny, and she didn’t want nor did she need any of the royal trappings. Harry and Chelsy are clearly both happy with the lives and partners they have now. We all know that it’s Meg who’s the love of Harry’s life. 💖
It’s absolute bullshit how it’s always framed as “Harry met Meghan and then he left.” No, he left because the entire country’s media was ABUSING Meghan from day one, his family didn’t do a thing to shut it down or even lessen it, it got far worse when she was pregnant, then it finally became obvious that the family was *helping the press with their smear campaign.*
When Harry and Meghan got engaged, they had every intention of staying in the UK and being working members of the Firm. They were DRIVEN OUT. And if it hadn’t been Meghan, it would have been another woman Harry left with. He was never going to tolerate that kind of abuse toward a woman he loved and his children.
I wish there was a like button!
I think it’s clear Harry was unhappy with the institution before he met Meghan, but he was prepared to stay in it and alongside his wife use the platform the institution gave him to do good things. They were even willing put up with the bad parts, until it became clear the bad included Harry’s own family working with the press to harm Meghan.
The family and the firm never wanted Harry to marry Meghan, and they tried everything they could do to stop the wedding before it happened. After, they tried everything to push her out, including driving her to suicidal ideation. Imagine what it felt like to realize that.
They left him with no choice, but I honestly think they’re too stupid to realize that. Some probably were even shocked he left with her instead of divorcing or didn’t come running back with his tail between his legs at some point.
They seem to believe their own BS that Harry was dumb and was nothing without being in that damn family. And all the time, they needed him much much more than he ever needed them.
@TigerMcQueen I agree. I think he was going to always stay until it became apparent that the RF in parts were briefing against his wife, and they wouldn’t let him respond and they wouldn’t respond. They literally let people know when she was in New York and put it out there that she was spending millions of taxpayer dollars until her friends got pissed and leaked that nope, they paid for everything. One thing I will say is that her friends are loyal to the bone. They were sick and tired of watching this. For crying out loud, even Lainey Gossip brings up how the RF shut down people talking about Katherine’s hair pieces. They couldn’t get them to stop claiming she was going against protocol, that she was eating avocados and ruining economies, etc.
I read yesterday that there was a change at the top at People and expect a change in the Royal reporting so when this article pops up I gave it a chance and was once again, I am very disappointed that an American magazine chose to just spew the palace propaganda.
This article was probably already in the pipeline though. Hopefully the future is brighter but I think People will probably always “both sides” everything. I just hope its not the blatant keen propaganda like in the past.
The issues are planned out several months down the road, so this is the doing of the old editor. If we’re still seeing pro-Cambridge crap from People into the summer, then we’ll know that the status quo is here to stay. I agree with MsIam that they will probably still sweeten up their royal reporting, but hopefully it won’t be quite so sickening as it is now.
Dan Wakeford, the British editor-in-chief of People magazine is leaving. And hopefully with that, these special Royal issues that prop up Kate and William will end. When I found out Wakeford was British, it made sense why all of a sudden People magazine was doling out Royals issues every other month. I don’t ever want to see William’s bulbous, Joker-like grinning face staring at me when I’m at the grocery store.
Of all these people that like to pen books in Harry and Meghan and their lives, I find Robert Lacey the most dangerous and vile, because he likes to come across as some sensible serious writer but underneath and not that far under, he likes to drop in his casual racist and dismissive behavior about what those people did to Harry and especially Meghan.
+1
Is anyone familiar with the short story “The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas” by Ursula K. Le Guin?
It’s a story about a “utopia” city (although no one could tell you exactly what makes it utopian), whose prosperity depends on the perpetual misery of a single child. When citizens are old enough to know the truth, most, though initially shocked and disgusted, ultimately acquiesce to this one injustice that secures the happiness of the rest of the city. However, some choose to walk away after seeing the child. But no one knows where they go. The story ends with “The place they got towards is a place even less imaginable to most of us than the city of happiness. I cannot describe it at all. It is possible it does not exist. But they seem to know where they are going, the ones who walk away from Omelas.”
I see it as a parable for the British Monarchy and the sycophantic ecosystem that surrounds it. Every generations “child” is the “spare”. And everyone in the family accepts that they live in perpetual misery because they benefit from it.
But this generations “child”, Harry, escaped and their “utopia”/fairy tale is falling apart. Without someone to draw all the fire, people are seeing them for what they truly are. The mystique is fading. The fairy tale is more Brothers Grimm than Disney.
This is brilliant! Thank you – it really makes sense. What a great analogy.
@Snuffles that is very interesting. It’s probably time for me to get into Ursula LeGuin. I’ve said it before but for me, Kazuo Ishiguro describes the British mindset so well, as a very experienced outsider. “Never Let Me Go” is so horrific to me without spoiling anything, I couldn’t finish the book but watched the movie and read the reviews. The stark contrast between American and British comments about what should be done about the central issue tell you everything you need to know about the insidious nature of class, identity, self determination and “loyalty” in England. Did anyone else feel the same way?
OMG. That movie was just so incomprehensible to me. The way the clones just accepted and submitted to their pre-ordained purpose was so shocking and depressing. I’m not American but Scandinavian but I just couldn’t wrap my head around the ending.
I agree. This is a brilliant analogy of the BRF. And a direct commentary on the Sussex’s sojourn in it. Because not only was H the proverbial ‘sacrificial child’ but also the only one with his profile in the history of the BRF, to leave that behemoth voluntarily and in the manner that he did and in the way he has chosen to live his life.
I think the sacrificial spare was perfected by Charles in his treatment of Harry. Was Margaret used to cover up for Elizabeth? Was Andrew used to cover up for Charles? I don’t know, I’m asking. It seems Charles and Andrew growing up got similar treatment in the press. The spare getting push aside at some point, the spare always being financially dependent has always existed, but the spare being used in the way Harry has being used seems different. Charles started using Harry to deflect and it took hold. Charles leaked stories, made up stories, about Harry to protect Camilla and the people around William decided to do the same.
But the sense that I get and that probably Harry picked up on was that going forward, with the next generation instead of the spare (Charlotte or Louis) being used in that way to cover the sins of the heir it was going to be his children.
Re: Margaret
I don’t think Elizabeth was a monumental screw up like William is, but she’s never been particularly bright and she had a racist, gaffe prone husband who regularly cheated on her. Someone was needed to distract from all that. Hence we had Margaret, the extroverted party girl with a smart mouth. She was painted as irresponsible and unstable while Elizabeth was painted as the nation’s steady rock. Very similar to how Harry and William were painted growing up.
Charles had 3 siblings to deflect to and later upped that with his children once Diana died and couldn’t protect them. With Harry getting the brunt of it because they still needed to protect the heir.
@Athena said:
“Was Margaret used to cover-up for Elizabeth? Was Andrew used to cover-up for Charles?”
^^ No, to both questions. Charles is 12 years older than Andrew, so they did not grow up together. Also, Andrew is the Queen’s favored son. Plus, she had more time to spend with Andrew and Edward, while she saw Chuck very little during his formative years.
Chuck bore the brunt of growing pains and of being caught out by the press for his few youthful mistakes as a schoolboy. Also, he was very sensitive, while Anne was a girl with the tough-as-nails personality that father Philip had. Thus, Chuck never had a young enough spare of his own gender to hide behind.
Growing up, the Queen was dutiful and protective of her younger sis, Margaret. I doubt there was any rivalry or jealousy by Betty. OTOH, they were treated differently and had different personalities. Betty was adored and Margaret was spoiled.
The dynamic changed when their father died and Betty became Queen at a young age. Still, it was Margaret who was likely more jealous of Betty than the opposite. Margaret rebelled and became wild in her behavior after she was prevented from marrying Peter Townsend. It was the government that largely denied the marriage, not her sister, QE-II.
@Snuffles said:
“Charles had 3 siblings to deflect to and later upped that with his children… with Harry getting the brunt of it…”
Charles became an adult before his younger brothers reached their teens. Anne had a tough personality like father Philip. Thus, Charles had no one to deflect to growing up, which is why he told his sons they had to suffer the way he had.
Charles used both of his sons for p.r. purposes. He was mostly a selfish, absent father but he did bond with them in playing polo together. It was the palace grey men who threw Harry under the bus to protect William. Charles didn’t prevent that from happening, so you could say he was passively complicit.
Still, I don’t think Charles treated his sons very differently. When it suited his p.r. purposes, he used them both.
It wasn’t QEII *at all* who denied the marriage to Townsend. Letters prove she got Margaret the whole set up. Keeping titles, HRH, royal housing, royal stipend, royal duties. Her children wouldn’t be in the line of succession because the Church would consider them illegitimate. QEII did everything she could to make it possible for Margaret to choose to marry Townsend. Margaret chose not to. Margaret. Nobody else is responsible for the choice Margaret made.
^^ Definitely @Nota, the Queen tried very hard to arrange for Margaret to be able to marry Townsend and still retain her HRH and her royal privileges. Betty knew she got to marry the man she wanted, and she didn’t want to deny her sister’s happiness. But the Queen caved to government pressure in the long run. Check out published reports during that time.
Where you have it absolutely wrong is claiming that Margaret freely and capriciously made the choice to not marry Townsend after her sister tried to make it possible. Margaret and Townsend were both hard done by, having been told to wait five years, which they did. It was thought that they would lose interest in each other. They didn’t. The Crown’s dramatic license errors and miscasting, especially of Townsend, are very misleading.
What’s worse has been the way the Margaret/ Townsend love story has been rewritten and reframed after they both died and can’t correct the lies. The deal struck by Betty fell through. Margaret was going to be stripped of everything. She was born a Princess. That was her identity.
How do you force someone to choose between who they are and who they love? That was cruel and vicious. Margaret was completely traumatized and heartbroken, and she never recovered. Don’t be fooled by the gaslighting ‘blame Margaret game arranged by the government via those letters.
Margaret made no secret of being resentful at how she was raised compared to her sister. She regretted not getting a better education. More care was taken with Elizabeth’s education than Margaret’s.
I had a similar thought a few weeks ago, regarding the Le Guin story, which i read for the first time about a month ago. What’s so chilling about the story is the people who justify the abject suffering of the child–a child who sits in filth all day and begs to be let out. The Omelas say things like, “the kid would likely die if it was let out, and it wouldn’t understand freedom anyway. It has grown used to its circumstances and it would be cruel to remove it (the child is called it in the story).
I immediately thought of the royal family. The royal family justifies the mistreatment of the “spare” by the old “the ends justify the means.” After all, they all grow up thinking they are serving something bigger than themselves: the institution of the monarchy, the Crown, and they all do their duty by playing their parts. Just like the Omelas come to accept the suffering of the child by telling themselves that it’s part of the “natural order of things,” not acknowledging their own selfishness and depravity in knowingly allowing themselves to benefit and thrive off the suffering of others.
Harry and Meghan’s “crime” was walking away–I think that’s why the media and the royals erupted with such hatred. I imagine the ones who walk away from the Omelas are remembered with hatred as well–because they dispel the central belief that the child’s suffering is not just acceptable, but justifiable. The ones who walk away remind the others of their complicity in suffering. I think the ratchets have hit so hard at Meghan and Harry because by walking away, Harry and Meghan have brought the rot of the institution into the light. The mystique of the royal family has soured. The royalists and ratchets cling to it still, but it will become more and more apparent that they are clinging to an illusion.
I haven’t stopped thinking about the story since I read it.
“The Omelas say things like, “the kid would likely die if it was let out, and it wouldn’t understand freedom anyway. It has grown used to its circumstances and it would be cruel to remove it (the child is called it in the story).”
CHILLS 🥶🥶 That is EXACTLY what Harry’s family thought and was feeding him year in and year out.
Incidentally, I first read this in college as part of an assignment. Then the group discussed it. The teacher asked us if we would stay or walk away. Most said they would walk away. But this one bitch (white girl) said she would stay and just double downed on her stance when the rest of the class was appalled at her reasoning. I never side-eyed a bitch so hard in my life.
I’m going to teach the story this year, and I’m really curious what my students will say.
@Snuffles, I was not familiar with that story, but my god the parallels to the RF are insanely creepy…thank you for bringing it to my attention. Even reading your summary and the replies to it is giving me chills.
Sounds like the basis/seed for Lois Lowry’s The Giver.
That’s what I thought when I first started writing the post. I remember reading the giver in science class ( summer was near, teacher gave up on teaching ) and it’s always been with me.
If the BRF wants Prince Harry back, they have an odd way of showing it. Sometimes I think they (Chuck?) are playing both brothers against each other. Would people pay attention if Harry & William were BFF’s? Conflict & drama sell, and I think Chuck likes to manipulate the brothers.
Not sure how there can be reconciliation when William has constantly shown how much he despises Meghan. I don’t think we’ve even heard ‘sources’ speculate about how William is sad not to see Archie or Lili so not even fake sources are pretending that William cares about Harry’s kids.
William probably feels betrayed by Harry not supporting him in his reign & telling the truth about the monarchy which makes it look bad. So a lot to overcome.
Interesting that Lacey admits there were arguments before the wedding. Why were William & Kate causing rows just before a wedding? 🤔
Sussexit has successfully split the Windsor family into two branches: the “American Windsors” and the “British Windsors”. Harry and Meghan have gained enough gravity in the US to shine in their own light on the global stage.
That is why there will always be media interest in the development of each branch including their next generations.
The American Windsors are highly respected royals outside the UK. Not only in the US but we’ll see that as well in Europe at the Invictus Games next month. It has just been confirmed that the Dutch royal family (Princess Margriet and King Willem Alexander) will attend the opening and closing ceremony respectively.
The British Windsors will probably stay at home, missing another opportunity to heal their rift with the American Windsors. And the British media will produce sour clickbait as usual.
I really don’t think Harry has a beef with William or any of them, he just peace out from around them so he could go be happy with his beautiful wife and children. These sad pathetic Incandescent ones he left behind just can’t seem to accept it or comprehend how he can choose to be happy over being a doormat in their monarchy
I bet Harry has a *lot* of feelings about his birth family, but IA that in leaving, he went *towards* something — a goal and a dream, a vision that he and Meghan had of freedom and independence for themselves and their children. The ability to live in peace and to determine their own futures. So while Harry will most likely have to work through and process the various traumas inflicted on him by his family, he will get to spend 90% of his time literally just being happy and fulfilled without them.
^^ @Over It, @Dee Kay, and @2Cents, I think your observations are on target, and provide food for thought.
Thanks also to @Snuffles, @NickG and others for the Ursula Le Guin, Kazuo Ishiguro, and Lois Lowry story comparisons to the British royal family’s toxic patterns. The commentary in this thread offers lots of food for thought toward a deeper understanding of universal family and cultural dynamics.
I feel like this is just an advert for Lacey’s book. He’s turned out to be such a disappointment.
Harry said himself they should have left 4 yrs ago. He also said himself he was unhappy pre Meghan but Meghan helped him realize his huge platform. Harry at some point also said he hadn’t seen the Cambridge’s in ages when charlotte I think was born.
I don’t think they were close. He was used and abused and I’m glad they were able to make it out.
I will say Williams time is coming..I feel it! With Harry and Meghan just doing good work, minding their business, and being honored for it the BM have nothing. Hence the recycled stories.
William has too many secrets and people need paydays. He’s gone unscathed for the most part this last year and I don’t think it will be the same this coming year.
Plus, what about the strong behind-the-scenes rumors of M&H successful fundraising for their charities being diverted to prop up William & Kate’s?
Wasn’t there a royal reporter on twitter who said nothing could be written due to a pending court case…
I still believe the feud stems from Willyboy using a racial slur against Meg and being racist about Archie.
Meg’s pregnancy set everything off. The fam was fine with her until they realized she’d be a permanent fixture after having Harry’s child. I totally believe that Will tried to talk Harry out of having a kid with Meghan.
And I suspect this will one day come to light and ruin Wills’ reputation.
I used to think it was the pregnancy, but now I think it was the Oceana tour. The Sussexes got such good press and appeared to be equal with the Cambridges, eclipsing them even. That was the unpardonable sin for them. But obviously, if William was running around trying to get his uncle to convince Harry not to marry Meghan and if Jason was working with Toxic to stop the wedding, then the seeds were planted really early.
I think the Oceana tour was definitely part of it. But Harry has said “if you only knew what I know” and that to me means more than just jealousy st being eclipsed. I think whatever Harry knows is bad for TOB’s and the BRF’s reputations. That’s not jealousy. A lot of folks would say jealousy is OK because the Cambridges are higher up and shouldn’t be outshone.
Toxic racism, manipulation of tabloids to hide affairs, shady financial doings… these things matter more so I think the rift stems from one or all of these issues.
I think he found out that Jason Knauf on orders from William was behind some of these tabloid stories. I think for Harry that was the big betrayal. He was done at that point.
The office split was announced during the oceana tour (probably leaked to bring overshadow the tour when they were attracting record crowds) so I think that the brothers had already fallen out by then.
I think that leak about the office split was the start of the palace & the press aligning on smears. My guess is the launch of the cookbook that September was a trigger. It proved Meghan wanted to work & not just be a ‘diversity hire’. She was also able to launch a successful project without having given press access so showed she was a threat to the rota AND to royals who hadn’t really launched successful projects yet. The second trigger was possibly the quick pregnancy announced before the tour that threatened a permanent link between her & the royal family. So think that’s why ‘operation get rid of Meghan’ started then.
My initial thought was that this was written because Harry, despite the constant trolling from SaltIsland, is doing quite well for himself and well, we see William still leaking against them, saying dumb stuff and not exactly seizing that spotlight he so needed to himself. As someone pointed out in a very good Twitter feed, no one has ever said Charles needed Andrew ( lol,ewww) for his reign, but they constantly say that about William needing Harry. They also described William as repugnant. Anyway, these articles always sound like they are so mystified about why Harry left with Meghan, refusing to acknowledge the racist Psyops conducted against his wife, and the ongoing attempts to still smear and harass them. Ugh, so gross.
We can’t possibly know what would have happened if he hadn’t met Meghan, but we do know that being with Meghan helped Harry clarify what he really wanted for his future – as well as magnifying all the pain he’s held over a lifetime. Maybe those things would have happened on a different timeline with a different woman, but eventually the Rota & the RF would have been too much for him and he would have left.
I am constantly amazed at the evolution of William’s looks. Like, where did it go left that he now resembles Mr. Burns from the Simpsons?
He looks like a combination of Charles, Edward, and once in a while, when he’s not scolding, little bit of Diana thrown in there. He really looks a lot like Charles at that age. I think people really overstated his resemblance to Diana. That cover photo looks like young Charles and young Philip.
I think Harry looks more like Prince Philip than William does. William was “windsorized” and lost his Spencer looks. I see a lot of Hanoverian features in William in profile like those old portraits of the profile of George III. There are actually three lines of descent from George III (through Queen Mary, through Edward VII, and through Prince Philip).
William is rumored to be a heavy drinker. It could be that he didn’t take good care of himself and these are the effects. Also of course the Windsors age terribly. Prince Edward’s looks also devolved rapidly.
What beef between brothers? One wants to control the other. The other brother moves on…end of story except now the media needs something to write about to make bank. The situation is similar to Meghan/ Kate, Meghan/Markles, and Meghan/Royals and the list goes on in the name of money grubbing hacks.
I am just fascinated about this since it seems not only messed up, but Shakespearean at times. The big issue is that Charles realizes that William and Katherine are not enough to hold back the abolish the monarchy crowd. They both together and individually keep causing issues. Some of the Commonwealth countries cited the mess going on with pushing Harry and Meghan out and sending them to Africa (which we know is something that was discussed) as reasons to remove the Queen as their head of state. The lack of the Queen at the recent service, sending the not so dazzling twosome on a tour, etc. is showing a lot of people that there really is no need for a monarchy full stop. Harry was their secret weapon and even the press acknowledges it. He has charisma and you can’t learn that. I honestly do feel bad for William because he is not easy around other people and you can see it every time he speaks or has a speech.
I bet 10 dollars Charles is trying to coax Harry back in some fashion. He threw out there that they are welcome to stay on his grounds, he talked about both his sons recently in an article, there’s pictures of Harry and Meghan surrounding him. If Harry and the family come through on the way to Invictus or coming home from Invictus stop by, there’s no way that Charles is going to miss them. He’s the only one I think besides the Queen who realizes what a mess this was. And let’s call a spade a spade, Charles and the Queen tossed them out and pulled security because they thought that would bring Harry to heel. Harry said FT I am taking my family and off I go. I think that Harry being able to just level the heck up over the past two years shook them. That New York trip is really I think when you started to see different rumblings from what I consider Charles side. William’s side was still trying to take her out via the Daily Mail lawsuit and they ended up losing that one and looking terribly.
I really think HM, Charles and William (and Kate) thought that Meghan would leave by herself. Were they ever wrong.
^^ @ChillingInDC, exactly! +💯 ITA with your thoughtful assessment. You make a number of good points. 👍 This is def Shakespearean drama indeed!
@ChillingInDC said:
“I honestly do feel bad for William because he isn’t easy around people…”
^^ This part, I don’t agree with you. I’ve always thought Will was boring, but I never realized he’s a petty, insecure, incandescent bully, until he and his wraith wife told on themselves by the way they actively mistreated Meghan. W&K also took Harry for granted, misused him, and took advantage of him.
I have absolutely no sympathy for either Will/ Cain nor Khatie McButtons. They need to own up to their faults and their toxic behavior. Their entitled attitudes, lofty status, and the ongoing embiggening of them is what prevents any family reconciliation.
It bothers me that some commentators go on about how “happy” Harry was with William and Kate, as if Harry had to stay with them for the rest of his life and not marry. And Kate was like a “sister” to him. This sort of myth is believed by Cambridge fans. Kate was never remotely like a ‘sister” to Harry especially the way she behaved towards Meghan. William and Harry could not stay small boys preserved for the rest of their lives. Both grew up and had their own families. Harry should not have been “required” to listen to his brother.
^^ Exactly @Tessa. Harry told us himself that he wasn’t happy being a third wheel. He was putting a face on things publicly for the most part, when he tagged along with W&K. Let’s remember too how Eugenie & Bea supported Harry last summer when they let it be known that Harry was never listened to as a senior royal!
Harry always spoke of wanting a family of his own. He loved the military, where he felt ‘normal’ and truly part of a team for the first time. Yet, because he’s easygoing and he respects his grandmother, he bent to the firm’s demand that he retire from the military. Harry made huge sacrifices to support the monarchy. Yet, when he found happiness with Meg, many in the royal firm, especially W&K/ KP, were not supportive — they were actively oppositional. As well as racist.
So, Harry took the difficult and courageous step of escaping the gilded cage. We are witnessing some amazing history in real time. Harry’s memoir is for his children. It will be an important part of his legacy.
This story is poppycock!!! Simply a rehash of words and phrases that have been used over and over to claim H and W were inseparable until M arrived and lured him away.
The worst thing from the bots is that Harry should have “stayed” with William and Kate. Harry was entitled to marry and have his own family not perennial third wheel.
As Harry puts it-stop the genetic pain to himself and his family-If the BRF can’t see or understand the pain caused by them or in their name there is no hope of putting the past behind and moving forward-his memoir will reflect things he encountered and how he dealt with it-Harry and Meghan are all about moving forward with no shackles of genetic pain causing them and their children hurt and sadness-they are not going to live their lives constantly suffering with pain and hurt inflicted by others. God bless the Sussex family and keep them safe.
The ball is in Billy’s court, he needs to make a sincere apology to Meghan. However, I feel that his well documented arrogance will prevent that.
Billy had his brother exactly where he wanted him, until Meghan came along and upset the apple cart, when she saw how badly Harry was being treated.
If only Billy could swallow his pride, see the bigger picture, and understand how much he would personally gain from establishing warm genuine relations with Harry and Meghan, and just accept that the Sussexes are more charismatic and dynamic that he and his wife are.
Look at that cover photo. Despite their soured relationship that looks like a genuine smile on William’s face. Even if it was just a fleeting moment….I’m imagining Kate seething she can’t get any public photos like this with her husband.
Those special People Magazine “Royal Issues” don’t exactly fly off the shelves, there are a lot of copies left unpurchased. It’s just the same old same old in those magazines.